When YouTube star MrBeast launched his chocolate brand Feastables, he didn’t expect to uncover one of the darkest parts of the cocoa industry.
“When I started a chocolate company, I was shocked how normalized using child labor on farms is,” he wrote in a June 9 post on X.
“Over 1,560,000 CHILDREN work on cocoa farms in West Africa!!”
He added, “Leveraging my 700M followers and Feastables I will change this. It makes me sick.”
The figure comes from the U.S. Department of Labor, and it highlights a problem that has persisted for decades.
Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana produce nearly 60% of the world’s cocoa, and according to a government-backed report, an estimated 1.56 million children are still working on farms in these two countries.
Many of them perform hazardous tasks like handling machetes, spraying pesticides, and carrying heavy loads. Most of these children are under 18, and some are younger than 12.
A Broken Promise
Despite high-profile promises to fix the problem, the situation hasn’t improved.
In 2001, chocolate giants including Nestlé, Hershey, and Mars pledged to eliminate the worst forms of child labor from their supply chains.
But deadlines in 2005, 2008, and 2010 were all missed.
According to a 2020 Labor Department survey, child labor in cocoa actually increased between 2008 and 2019.
The prevalence of child labor in cocoa-growing households rose from 31% to 45% during that period.
Nearly all of those children were engaged in hazardous tasks, as defined by international labor standards.
Because companies still cannot fully trace the origin of their cocoa, many cannot say whether their products are child-labor-free.
A Washington Post investigation found that major chocolate brands still cannot identify all the farms in their supply chains. This makes it nearly impossible to verify labor conditions.
Industry Response Falls Short
Richard Scobey, president of the World Cocoa Foundation, acknowledged that “there are today still too many children in cocoa farming doing work for which they are too young, or work that endangers them.”
But he also pointed to the scale of the problem, saying, “Companies alone cannot solve the problem.”
He said earlier goals may have been unrealistic given the complexity of poverty in rural Africa, and noted that cocoa production has increased since the original pledges were made.
Some companies, like Mars and Hershey, claim they’ve made progress through programs that monitor farms for child labor.
Hershey says that farms involved in their programs have seen child labor drop by one-third.
However, these efforts still only cover around 60% of cocoa production in West Africa, according to industry statements.
Advocates Call for Action, Not Excuses
Advocates and human rights groups say these results aren’t good enough. “
These serious human rights violations require mandatory rules with serious penalties, not empty promises,” said Terrence Collingsworth, an attorney representing Malian children in a lawsuit against Nestlé and Cargill.
The plaintiffs say they were trafficked and forced to work on cocoa farms in Côte d’Ivoire.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) has called for stronger enforcement of labor laws, more access to education, and support for poor families so they don’t have to send children to work.
The ILO also noted that poverty, weak governance, cultural norms, and lack of schooling options are all root causes of child labor in the cocoa sector.
ILAB, the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs, has also played a key role.
It helped create the Child Labor Cocoa Coordinating Group (CLCCG), a public-private partnership bringing together governments, chocolate companies, and civil society groups.
While these efforts have promoted coordination, critics say they still haven’t gone far enough.
MrBeast’s Influence Could Make a Difference
MrBeast says he’s ready to do his part. With hundreds of millions of followers and a fast-growing chocolate brand, he’s pledging to use his influence to help fix a system that still relies on child labor.
“It makes me sick,” he said.
His announcement has brought new attention to the issue and could pressure more companies to take stronger action.
As long as cocoa farming depends on exploited children, critics argue that sweet treats will come with a bitter cost.
For millions of children working in dangerous conditions on cocoa farms, and for the consumers who buy chocolate without knowing where it comes from, that change can’t come soon enough.